Italy made a 2 million euros for refugees in Ethiopia from the Fund for Africa

ROME, AUGUST 10 – Italy has made a 2-million-euro contribution for cooperation interventions in favour of refugees in Ethiopia through the Fund for Africa. The emergency humanitarian action is aimed at providing tangible support to the numerous refugees, mostly Eritrean, who are distributed in the four refugee camps in the Tigray region.

Moreover, other funds will be earmarked for projects to provide assistance to the local hosting communities, thus contributing to stabilise the area. By improving refugee reception and integration standards, this action falls within the scope of the broader objective of fighting migrant trafficking.

“It marks an important sign of solidarity towards a country that is strongly committed to controlling migration flows and hosting refugees and falls within the framework of enhanced cooperation with the African Countries of transit recently consolidated at the conference “A Shared Responsibility for a Common Goal: Solidarity and Security” of last 6 July,,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Angelino Alfano.

There are 12 entry points along Ethiopia’s 910km border with Eritrea from where refugees are moved to a screening and registration centre in the town of Endabaguna. Afterwards they are assigned to one of four refugee camps in the Tigray region bordering Eritrea. In February 2017, 3,367 Eritrean refugees arrived in Ethiopia, according to the Ethiopian Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs.

Ethiopia currently houses around 165,000 Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers, according to the UN refugee agency. Moreover, thousands more Eritreans are thought to live in the country outside the asylum system. (@OnuItalia)